#economic-damage

#economic-damage

Hurricane Melissa wreaked catastrophic damage in Caribbean communities after it made landfall on Tuesday. The storm - the strongest hurricane this year - barreled through Jamaica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti, decimating homes and businesses, flooding streets, and knocking out power for hundreds of thousands of residents. At least 30 people were killed in the region. Jamaica was the hardest hit, as the hurricane made landfall with sustained wind speeds of 185 miles per hour, some of the strongest ever recorded in the region.

When Nepal's youth rose up without a leader, they broke a century-long cycle of betrayal, and showed where power really lies. In the 48 hours that Nepal's Gen-Z revolution unfolded, one question echoed across the country: Where is their Lenin? But perhaps that question missed the point. For decades, every Nepali revolution has been undone not by its enemies but by those who claimed to lead it. This time, the absence of a single figurehead was not a weakness; it was the movement's greatest strength.

Wildfires tore through central Chile last year, killing 133 people. In California, 18,000 buildings were destroyed in 2018 causing US$16bn (A$24bn, 12bn) in damage. Portugal, Greece, Algeria and Australia have all felt the grief and the economic pain in recent years. As the headlines, the death tolls and the billion dollar losses from wildfires have stacked up around the world, so too have the rising temperatures fuelled by the climate crisis that create tinderbox conditions.